Local guides
Places we love around our homes — sights, food, beaches and the practical bits, gathered by the people who live there.
Costa da Caparica
Setúbal and Azeitão — market, wine and cheese
A day built around food on the far side of the Arrábida: a port city with one of the country's best markets,…
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Costa da Caparica
The Serra da Arrábida and Portinho da Arrábida
A green limestone ridge that drops straight into a turquoise sea between Sesimbra and Setúbal — the most striking landscape close to…
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Costa da Caparica
Sesimbra — a fishing town with a castle and a beach
A fishing town in a sheltered south-facing bay on the far side of the Arrábida hills, with warmer, calmer water than the…
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Costa da Caparica
Cascais — the town, the harbour and the beaches
The old fishing town turned resort at the western end of the Lisbon coast railway — compact, walkable, and made for a…
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Costa da Caparica
Cabo da Roca and the Guincho coast
The westernmost point of mainland Europe, and the run of cliffs, dunes and one enormous Atlantic beach between there and Cascais.
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Costa da Caparica
Sintra — the Pena Palace and the Quinta da Regaleira
A cluster of palaces and gardens in wooded hills half an hour west of Lisbon — one of the busiest day trips…
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Costa da Caparica
Parque das Nações and the Oceanário — modern Lisbon by the water
The 1998 world's-fair site, now a riverside district of wide promenades and gardens, with one of the best aquariums in Europe —…
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Costa da Caparica
Riding tram 28 through Lisbon
The old yellow tram that grinds up and down Lisbon's steepest hills — thoroughly touristy, and still worth doing once.
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Costa da Caparica
Castelo de São Jorge and the view over Lisbon
A Moorish castle on the highest of Lisbon's hills, above Alfama, with the widest view over the city and the river —…
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Costa da Caparica
Bairro Alto and Príncipe Real — Lisbon in the evening
Two hillside neighbourhoods above Chiado that come into their own in the late afternoon and evening — a tight bar grid and…
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Costa da Caparica
Baixa and Chiado — Lisbon’s downtown
A flat grid of streets rebuilt on a clean plan after the 1755 earthquake, running from the riverfront square up to the…
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Costa da Caparica
Almada Velha and the Boca do Vento lift
The small old centre of Almada above Cacilhas, with viewpoints straight across at Lisbon and a glass lift down the cliff to…
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Costa da Caparica
Cacilhas — the ferry to Lisbon, the Ginjal quay and the old frigate
The ferry terminal across the Tejo from Lisbon, with seafood restaurants, a riverside walk under the cliff, and a nineteenth-century sailing frigate…
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Costa da Caparica
Lagoa de Albufeira — the lagoon south of the beaches
A warm, shallow lagoon behind the dunes with the open Atlantic on the other side — a favourite for families and for…
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Costa da Caparica
Mata dos Medos and the Arriba Fóssil — pine forest and fossil cliffs
Behind the Caparica beaches, a wall of ochre and red fossil sea-cliffs with a protected umbrella-pine forest along the top — an…
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Costa da Caparica
Praia da Morena and Praia da Sereia — the beaches south of Caparica town
A run of dune-backed Atlantic beaches between the busy Caparica seafront and quiet Fonte da Telha, reached by a little train in…
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Costa da Caparica
Grilled sardines and the June street parties in Lisbon
Every June, Lisbon's old neighbourhoods fill with bunting, grills and sardines for the Santos Populares.
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Costa da Caparica
Fonte da Telha — the quiet end of the Caparica beaches
The village at the southern tip of Costa da Caparica: wide sand, dunes, seafood shacks and far fewer people.
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Costa da Caparica
Belém — the monastery, the tower and the custard tarts
Lisbon's riverside monument quarter: a Manueline monastery, a fort in the water, and the original pastéis de Belém.
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Costa da Caparica
Alfama — Lisbon’s oldest quarter
The tangle of lanes below the castle: viewpoints, tram 28, fado in the evening, and how to walk it.
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Costa da Caparica
Cristo Rei — the view over Lisbon from Almada
The open-armed statue on the south bank, and the widest view there is of Lisbon and the 25 de Abril bridge.
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Costa da Caparica
Costa da Caparica — beaches, seafood and how to get around
The long Atlantic beach south of Lisbon: where to swim, where to eat, and how to reach the quieter stretches.
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